Vladimir Lenin

November 6-9, 1918

Presented: 6-9November, 1918 First Published Newspaper reports published in Izvestia No. 244, November 9, 1918, and in Pravda No. 243, November 10, 1918 First published in full in 1919 in the book Extraordinary Sixth All-Russia Congress of Soviets. Verbatim Report Moscow; Published according to the book checked with the verbatim report and the pamphlet N. Lenin, World Imperialism and Soviet Russia, Moscow, 1919 Source: Lenin’s Collected Works, Progress Publishers, Moscow, Volume 28, 1974, pages 135-164Translated (and edited): Jim RiordanTranscription/HTML Markup: David Walters Online Version:V.I.Lenin Internet Archive, 2002

1

Speech On The Anniversary Of The Revolution

November 6, 19__

(Comrade Lenin’s appearance in the hall
is greeted with prolonged ovation.) Comrades, we are
celebrating the anniversary of our revolution at a time when
events of the utmost importance are taking place in the
international working-class movement. It has become obvious even
to the most sceptical and doubting elements of the working class
and working people in general that the world war will end neither
by agreements nor by coercion on the part of the old government
and the old ruling bourgeois class, that this war is leading the
whole world as well as Russia to a world proletarian revolution
and to the workers’ triumph over capital. Capital drenched
the earth in blood, and, after the violence and outrages of German
imperialism, Anglo-French imperialism, supported by Austria and
Germany, is pursuing the same policy.

Today, when celebrating the anniversary of the revolution, it
is fitting that we cast a glance back along the path traversed by
the revolution. We began our revolution in unusually difficult
conditions, such as no other workers’ revolution in the
world will ever have to face. It is therefore particularly
important that we endeavour to review the path we have covered as
a whole, to take stock of our achievements during this period, and
see to what extent we have prepared ourselves during the past year
for our chief, our real, our decisive and fundamental task. We
must be one of the detachments, one of the units of the world
proletarian and socialist army. We have always realised that it
was not on account of any merit of the Russian proletariat, or
because it was in advance of the others, that we happened to begin
the revolution, which grew out of world-wide struggle. On the
contrary, it was only because of the peculiar weakness and
backwardness of capitalism, and the peculiar pressure of military
strategic circumstances, that we happened in the course of events
to move ahead of the other detachments, while not waiting until
they had caught us up and rebellEditor We are now making this
review so as to take stock of our preparations for the battles
that will face us in the coming revolution.

And so, comrades, when we ask ourselves what big changes we
have made over the past year, we call say the following: from
workers’ control, the working class’s first steps, and
from disposing of all the country’s resources, we are now on
the threshold of creating a workers’ administration of
industry; from the general peasants’ struggle for land, the
peasants’ struggle against the landowners, a struggle that
had a national, bourgeois-democratic character, we have now
reached a stage where the proletarian and semi-proletarian
elements in the countryside have set themselves apart: those who
labour and are exploited have set themselves apart from the others
and have begun to build a new life; the most oppressed country
folk are fighting the bourgeoisie, including their own rural kulak
bourgeoisie, to the bitter end.

Furthermore, from the first steps of Soviet organisation we
have now reached a stage where, as Comrade Sverdlov justly
remarked in opening this Congress, there is no place in Russia,
however remote, where Soviet authority has not asserted itself and
become an integral part of the Soviet Constitution, which is based
on long experience gained in the struggle of the working and
oppressed people.

We now have a powerful Red Army instead of being utterly
defenceless after the last four years’ war, which evoked
hatred and aversion among the mass of the exploited and left them
terribly weak and exhausted, and which condemned the revolution to
a most difficult and drastic period when we were defenceless
against the blows of German and Austrian imperialism. Finally, and
most important of all, we have come from being isolated
internationally, from which we suffered both in October and at the
beginning of the year, to a position where our only, but firm
allies, the working and oppressed people of the world, have at
last rebellEditor We have reached a stage where the leaders of the
West European proletariat, like Liebknecht and Adler, leaders who
spent many months in prison for their bold and heroic attempts to
gather opposition to the imperialist war, have been set free under
the pressure of the rapidly developing workers’ revolutions
in Vienna and Berlin. Instead of being isolated, we are now in a
position where we are marching side by side, shoulder to shoulder
with our international allies. Those are the chief achievements of
the past year. I want to say a few words about the road we have
covered, about this transitional stage.

At first our slogan was workers’ control. We said that
despite all the promises of the Kerensky government, the
capitalists were continuing to sabotage production and increase
dislocation. We can now see that this would have ended in complete
collapse. So the first fundamental step that every socialist,
workers’ government has to take is workers’
control. We did not decree socialism immediately throughout
industry, because socialism can only take shape and be
consolidated when the working class has learnt how to run the
economy and when the authority of the working people has been
firmly establishEditor Socialism is mere wishful thinking without
that. That is why we introduced workers’ control,
appreciating that it was a contradictory and incomplete measure,
but an essential one so that the workers themselves might tackle
the momentous tasks of building up industry in a vast country
without and opposed to exploiters.

Everyone who took a direct, or even indirect, part in this
work, everyone who lived through all the oppression and brutality
of the old capitalist regime, learned a great deal. We know that
little has been accomplishEditor We know that in this extremely
backward and impoverished country where innumerable obstacles and
barriers were put in the workers’ way, it will take them a
long time to learn to run industry. But we consider it most
important and valuable that the workers have themselves tackled
the job, and that we have passed from workers’ control,
which in all the main branches of industry was bound to be
chaotic, disorganised, primitive and incomplete, to workers’
industrial administration on a national scale.

The trade unions’ position has alterEditor Their main
function now is to send their representatives to all management
boards and central bodies, to all the new organisations which have
taken over a ruined and deliberately sabotaged industry from
capitalism. They have coped with industry without the assistance
of those intellectuals who from the very out set deliberately used
their knowledge and education—the result of mankind’s
store of knowledge—to frustrate the cause of socialism,
rather than assist the people in building up a socially-owned
economy without exploiters. These men wanted to use their
knowledge to put a spoke in the wheel, to hamper the workers who
were least trained for tackling the job of administration.

We can now say that the main hindrance has been removEditor It
was extremely difficult, but the sabotage of all people
gravitating towards the bourgeoisie has been checkEditor The
workers have succeeded in taking this basic step, in laying the
foundations of socialism, despite tremendous handicaps. We are not
exaggerating and are not afraid to tell the truth. It is true that
in terms of our ultimate goal, little has been accomplishEditor
But a great deal, a very great deal, has been done to strengthen
the foundations. When speaking of socialism, we cannot say that
great sections of workers have laid the foundations in a
politically-conscious way in the sense that they have taken to
reading books and pamphlets. By political consciousness we mean
that they have tackled this formidable task with their own hands
and by their own efforts. And they have committed thousands of
blunders from each of which they have themselves sufferEditor But
every blunder trained and steeled them in organising industrial
administration, which has now been established and put upon a firm
foundation. They saw their work through. From now on the work will
be different, for now all workers, not just the leaders and
advanced workers, but great sections of workers, know that they
themselves, with their own hands, are building socialism and have
already laid its foundations, and no force in the country can
prevent them from seeing the job through.

We may have had great difficulties in industry, where we had
to cover a road which to many seemed long, but which was actually
short and led from workers’ control to workers’
administration, yet far greater preparatory work had to be done in
the more backward countryside. Anyone who has studied rural life
and come into contact with the peasants would say that it was only
in the summer and autumn of 1918 that the urban October Revolution
became a real rural October Revolution. And the Petrograd workers
and the Petrograd garrison soldiers fully realised when they took
power that great difficulties would crop up in rural
organisational work, and our progress there would have to he more
gradual and that it would be the greatest folly to try to
introduce socialised farming by decree, fot only an insignificant
number of enlightened peasants might support us, while the vast
majority had no such object in view. We therefore confined
ourselves to what was absolutely essential in the interests of
promoting the revolution—in no case to endeavour to outrun
the people’s development, but to wait until a movement
forward occurred as a result of their own experience and their own
struggle. In October we confined ourselves to sweeping away at one
blow the age-old enemy of the peasants, the feudal landowner, the
big landed proprietor. This was a struggle in which all the
peasants joinEditor At this stage the peasants were not yet
divided into proletarians, semi-proletarians, poor peasants and
bourgeoisie. We socialists knew there would be no socialism
without such a struggle, but we also realised that knowing it was
not enough—it had to be brought home to the millions, and
through their own experience, not through propaganda. And for that
reason, since the peasants as a whole could only conceive of the
revolution on the basis of equal land tenure, we openly declared
in our decree of October 26, 1917, that we would take the Peasant
Mandate on the Land as our starting-point. [See present edition, Volume 26, pages
258-60. —Editor;]

We said frankly that it did not accord with our views, that it
was not communism, but we were not imposing on the peasants
something that was merely in accord with our programme and not
with their views. We said we were marching alongside them, as with
fellow-workers, fully confident
that the development of the revolution would lead them to the
conclusions we ourselves had drawn. The result of this policy is
the peasant movement. The agrarian reform began with the
socialisation of the land which we voted for and carried out,
though openly declaring that it did not accord with our
views. We knew that the idea of equal land tenure had the
support of the vast majority, and we had no desire to force
anything upon them. We were prepared to wait until the peasants
themselves abandoned the idea and advanced further. So we waited
and we have been able to prepare our forces.

The law we then passed was based on general democratic
principles, on that which unites the rich kulak peasant with the
poor peasant—hatred for the landowner. It was based on the
general idea of equality which was undoubtedly a revolutionary
idea directed against the old monarchist system. From this law we
had to pass to differentiation of the peasants. The land
socialisation law was universally accepted; it was unanimously
adopted both by us and by those who did not subscribe to Bolshevik
policy. We gave the agricultural communes the biggest say in
deciding who should own the land. We left the road open for
agriculture to develop along socialist lines, knowing perfectly
well that at that time, October 1917, it was not yet ready for
it. Our preparatory work cleared the way for the gigantic and
epoch-making step we have now taken, one that has not been taken
by any other country, not even by the most democratic
republic. That step was taken this summer by all the peasants,
even in the most remote villages of Russia. When food difficulties
arose and famine threatened, when the heritage of the past and the
aftermath of the accursed four years of war made themselves felt,
when counter-revolution and the Civil War had deprived us of our
richest grain region, when all this reached a climax and the
cities were menaced by famine, the only, the most reliable and
firm bulwark of our government, the advanced workers of the towns
and industrial regions, went en masse to the countryside. It is
slander to say the workers went there to provoke an armed conflict
between workers and peasants. Events expose that slander. The
workers went to put down the rural exploiters, the kulaks, who
were making huge fortunes out of grain profiteering at a time when
people were starving. They went to help the poor peasants, that
is, the majority of the rural population. The July crisis, when
kulak revolts swept the whole of Russia, clearly showed that their
mission had not been in vain, that they had extended the hand of
alliance, and that their preparatory work had merged with the
efforts of the peasants. The working and exploited country people
settled the July crisis by rising up everywhere and coming out in
alliance with the urban proletariat. Today Comrade Zinoviev told
me over the telephone that 18,000 people are attending the
regional congress of Poor Peasants’ Committees in Petrograd
and that there is remarkable enthusiasm and high spirits.[2]

As events unfolding throughout Russia became more evident, the
village poor realised from their own experience when they went
into action what the struggle against the kulaks meant, and that
to keep the cities supplied with food and to re-establish
commodity exchange, without which the countryside cannot live,
they must part company with the rural bourgeoisie and the
kulaks. They have to organise separately. And we have now taken
the first and most momentous step of the socialist revolution in
the countryside. We could not have taken that step in October. We
gauged the moment when we could approach the people. And we have
now reached a point where the socialist revolution in the rural
areas has begun, where in every village, even the most remote the
peasant knows that his rich neighbour, the kulak, if he is engaged
in grain profiteering, sees everything in the light of his old,
backwoods mentality.

And so the countryside, the rural poor, uniting with their
leaders, the city workers, are only now providing us with a firm
and stable foundation for real socialist construction. Socialist
construction will only now begin in the countryside. Only now are
Soviets and farms being formed which are systematically working
towards large-scale socialised farming, towards making full use of
knowledge, science and technology, realising that even simple,
elementary human culture cannot be based on the old, reactionary,
ignorant way of life. The work here is even more difficult than in
industry, and even more mistakes are being made by our local
committees and Soviets. But they learn from their mistakes. We are
not afraid of mistakes when they are made by ordinary people who
take a conscientious attitude to socialist construction, because
we rely only on the experience and effort of our own people.

And now the tremendous upheaval that in so short a time has led
us to socialism in the countryside shows that this fight has been
crowned with success. The Red Army is the most striking proof of
that. You know the state we were in during the imperialist world
war when conditions in Russia made life unbearable for the common
people. We know that at that time we were in an utterly helpless
state. We frankly told the working people the whole truth. We
exposed the secret imperialist treaties, the fruits of a policy
which serves as a massive instrument of deception, and which in
America today, the most advanced of the bourgeois imperialist
democratic republics, is more than ever deceiving the people and
leading them by the nose. When the imperialist character of the
war became patent to all, the Russian Soviet Republic was the only
country that completely shattered the bourgeoisie’s secret
foreign policy. We exposed the secret treaties and declared,
through Comrade Trotsky, to all countries of the world: We appeal
to you to put an end to this war in a democratic way, without
annexations and indemnities, and frankly and proudly declare the
truth, a bitter truth but the truth nevertheless, that only a
revolution against the bourgeois governments can put an end to
this war. But we stood alone. So we had to pay the price of that
terribly excruciating peace which was forced upon us by the
Brest-Litovsk Treaty and which drove many of our sympathizers to
gloom and despair. That was because we were alone. But we did our
duty and showed up the aims of the war for everyone to see! The
onslaught of German imperialism was able to overwhelm us because
it took some time before our workers and peasants could organise
properly. We had no army then; all we had was the old,
disorganised, imperialist army which had been driven to fight in
the war for aims which the soldiers did not support and with which
they did not sympathise. So we had to go through a very painful
period. It was a time when the people needed a respite from the
terrible imperialist war, and had to realise that a new war was
beginning. We are entitled to regard the war we shall wage in
defence of our socialist revolution as our war. That is what
millions and tens of millions of people had to learn to appreciate
from their own experience. It took months. It took a long and hard
battle for this realisation to get through. By this summer,
however, everyone saw that it had got through at last, and that
the breakthrough had come. Everyone realised that to have the army
fight for the Soviet Republic, the army that comes from the
people, that is sacrificing itself, and that after four years of
bloody slaughter is again prepared to go to war, our country had
to replace the weariness and despair of the people going to war by
a clear realisation that they go to their death for their own
cause: for the workers’ and peasants’ Soviets and the
socialist republic. That has been achieved.

The victories we gained over the Czechs in the summer, and the
news of big victories now coming in go to show that a
turning-point has come, and that the hardest task—organising
the people in a politically-conscious, socialist way after four
years of terrible war—has been achievEditor That political
consciousness has penetrated a long way among the people. Tens of
millions of people have come to realise they are tackling a
difficult job. And that gives us assurance that we shall not
despair, even though the forces of world imperialism, stronger
than us today, are being mustered against us, even though we are
surrounded by the soldiers of the imperialists, who realise the
menace from the Soviet government and are eager to strangle it,
and even though we truthfully say they are stronger than us.

We say we are growing, the Soviet Republic is growing. The
cause of the proletarian revolution is growing faster than the
imperialist forces are closing in upon us. We are full of hope and
assurance that we are fighting in the interests of the world
socialist revolution as well as the Russian socialist
revolution. Our hopes of victory are growing faster because our
workers are becoming more politically conscious. What was the
state of Soviet organisation last October? Only the first steps
were being taken. We could not make it perfect or put it on a
proper basis. But now we have the Soviet Constitution. The Soviet
Constitution; ratified in July, is, as we know, not the invention
of a commission, nor the creation of lawyers, nor is it copied
from other constitutions. The world has never known such a
constitution as ours. It embodies the workers’ experience of
struggle and organisation against the exploiters both at home and
abroad. We possess a fund of fighting
experience. (Applause.) And this fund of experience has
provided a striking corroboration of the fact that the organised
workers created a Soviet government without civil servants,
without a standing army and without privileges (privileges in
practice for the bourgeoisie), and that they created the
foundations of a new system in the factories. We are getting down
to work and drawing in new helpers, who are essential if the
Soviet Constitution is to be carried into effect. We now have
ready new recruits, young peasant, who must be drawn into the work
and help us carry the job through.

The last question I want to touch upon is the international
situation. We are standing shoulder to shoulder with our
international comrades, and we have now seen for ourselves the
resoluteness and enthusiasm they put into their conviction that
the Russian proletarian revolution will go along with them as the
world revolution.

As the revolution’s international significance grew, the
imperialists of the whole world banded even closer and more
furiously together against us. In October 1917 they regarded our
Republic as a curiosity not worth serious attention. In February
they regarded it as an experiment in socialism not to be taken
seriously. But the Republic’s army grew and gained in
strength until the very difficult task of creating a socialist Red
Army had been accomplishEditor As our cause gained in strength and
its successes multiplied, the opposition and the hatred of the
imperialists of all countries grew more rabid. Things have reached
a state where British and French capitalists, who had proclaimed
they were Wilhelm’s enemies, are now on the verge of joining
forces with this same Wilhelm in an effort to strangle the
Socialist Soviet Republic. For they have come to realise that it
is no longer a curiosity or an experiment in socialism, but the
hotbed, the really genuine hotbed, of the world socialist
revolution. Hence, the number of our enemies has increased along
with the successes of our revolution. We must realise what is
lying in store for us, without in any way concealing the gravity
of the situation. We shall go to meet it not alone but with the
workers of Vienna and Berlin, who are moving into the same fight,
and who will perhaps bring greater discipline and
class-consciousness to our common cause.

To give you an idea of how the clouds are gathering over our
Soviet Republic and what dangers are threatening us, I shall read
you the full text of a Note sent to us by the German Government
through its consulate:

On the instructions of the German Imperial Government, the
Imperial German Consulate has the honour to notify the Russian
Federative Soviet Republic of the following: The German
Government has already had occasion to protest twice against the
impermissible campaign that is being conducted against German
state institutions through declarations made by official Russian
authorities in contravention of Article 2 of the Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk. It can no longer confine itself to protests
against this campaign, which is not only a violation of the said
stipulations of the Treaty, but a serious departure from normal
international practice.

When the Soviet Government established its Diplomatic Legation
in Berlin after the conclusion of the Peace Treaty, Herr Joffe,
the appointed Russian representative, received a clear reminder
of the need to refrain from any agitation or propaganda in
Germany. To this he replied that he was acquainted with Article
2 of the Brest-Litovsk Treaty and was aware that in his capacity
as representative of a foreign Power he must not interfere in
Germany’s internal affairs. Herr Joffe and the departments
in his charge accordingly enjoyed in Berlin the attention and
confidence normally accorded to extraterritorial foreign
legations. This confidence was, however, betrayEditor It has
been clear for some time that the Russian Legation has been in
close contact with certain people working for the overthrow of
the political order in Germany, and, by employing such people in
its service, has been interested in a movement aimed at
overthrowing the existing system in Germany.

The following incident, which occurred on the 4th instant,
revealed that the Russian Legation, by importing leaflets
calling for revolution, is even taking an active part in
movements aimed at overthrowing the existing order, thereby
abusing the privilege of employing diplomatic couriers. Because
one of the boxes in the official baggage of the Russian courier
who arrived in Berlin yesterday was damaged during
transportation, it was ascertained that the boxes contained
revolutionary leaflets printed in German and, judging by their
contents, designed for dissemination in Germany.

The German Government has further grounds for complaint because
of the attitude taken by the Soviet Government towards the
expiation to be made for the assassination of Count Mirbach, the
Imperial Ambassador. The Russian Government solemnly declared
that it would do everything in its power to bring the criminals
to court. But the German Government has not observed any signs
of the prosecution and punishment of the criminals having been
undertaken, or even of any intention of it being done. The
murderers escaped from a house surrounded on all sides by Public
Security men of the Russian Government. The instigators of the
assassination, who have publicly admitted they were behind the
whole affair, to this day go unpunished and, according to
information received, have even been pardonEditor

The German Government protests against such violations of the
Treaty and of public law. It is obliged to demand guarantees
from the Russian Government that no further agitation and
propaganda running counter to the Peace Treaty will be
conductEditor It must furthermore insist on the expiation of the
assassination of the Ambassador, Count Mirbach, by the
punishment of the perpetrators and instigators of the
murder. Until such time as these demands are satisfied, the
German Government must request the Government of the Soviet
Republic to withdraw its diplomatic and other representatives
from Germany. The Russian plenipotentiary in Berlin was today
informed that a special train for the departure of the
diplomatic and consular representatives in Berlin and of other
Russian officials in the city will be ready tomorrow evening,
and that measures will be taken to secure the unhampered transit
of all Russian personnel to the Russian frontier. The Soviet
Government is requested to enable the German representatives in
Moscow and Petrograd to leave at the same time, with the
observance of all the demands of courtesy. Other Russian
representatives in Germany, and likewise German officials in
other parts of Russia, will be informed they must leave within a
week, the former for Russia, the latter for Germany. The German
Government concludes in anticipation that all the rules of
courtesy will be similarly observed towards the latter German
officials in relation to their departure and that other German
subjects or persons under German protection will be allowed the
opportunity of unhampered departure should they request
it.”

We all know perfectly well, comrades, that the German
Government has been fully aware that German socialists enjoyed the
hospitality of the Russian Embassy and that no supporters of
German imperialism ever crossed the threshold of the Russian
Embassy. Its friends were those socialists who opposed the war and
who sympathised with Karl Liebknecht. They have been guests of the
Embassy ever since it opened, and we have had dealings with them
alone. The German Government was perfectly aware of that. It
followed the movements of every representative of our government
as zealously as the government of Nicholas II used to follow the
movements of our comrades. The German Government is now making
this move not because the situation has in any way changed, but
because it formerly felt stronger, and was not afraid that one
“burning’ house on the streets of Berlin would set all
Germany alight. The German Government has lost its head, and now
that the whole of Germany is ablaze, it thinks it can put out the
fire by turning its police hose on a single house. (Stormy
applause.)

That is simply ridiculous. If the German Government is going to
break off diplomatic relations, all we call say is that we knew it
would, and that it is doing all it can to get an alliance with the
British and French imperialists. We know Wilson’s government
has received telegram after telegram requesting that German troops
be left in Poland, the Ukraine, Estonia and Latvia. Although they
are enemies of German imperialism, the German troops are doing
their job: they are putting down the Bolsheviks. [See Resolution Adopted at
a Joint Session of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee, the
Moscow Soviet, Factory Committees and Trade Unions]
They can clear out when pro-Entente “armies of
liberation” appear on the scene to strangle the
Bolsheviks.

We are perfectly aware of what is going on and none of it is
unexpect. We merely repeat that now that Germany is on fire and
Austria is all ablaze, now that they have had to liberate
Liebknecht and allow him to visit the Russian Embassy, where a
joint meeting of Russian and German socialists with Liebknecht at
their head was held, such a step on the part of the German
Government shows not so much that they want to fight as that they
have completely lost their heads. It shows they are at a loss for
a decision because Anglo-American imperialism, the most brutal
enemy of all, is advancing upon them, an enemy that has crushed
Austria with peace terms a hundred times more onerous than those
of the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty. Germany sees that these
liberators want to strangle, crush and torture her too. But at the
same time the workingman’s Germany is rebelling. The German
army proved to be useless and unfit for action not because
discipline was weak but because the soldiers who refused to fight
were transferred from the Eastern front to the German Western
front and carried with them what the bourgeoisie call world
Bolshevism.

That is why the German army was unfit for action and why this
document is the best proof of Germany’s utter confusion. We
say it will lead to a diplomatic rupture, and perhaps even to war
if they can find the strength to lead the white guard troops. We
have therefore sent a telegram to all the Soviets of Deputies,[3] which concludes by warning them to be
on their guard, to hold themselves in readiness and muster all
their forces, for this is just another sign that the chief aim of
international imperialism is the overthrow of Bolshevism. That
does not mean defeating Russia alone. It means defeating their own
workers in every country. But they will not succeed, no matter
what brutalities and outrages may follow this decision. These
vultures are preparing to swoop down on Russia from the South,
through the Dardanelles, or by way of Bulgaria and Rumania. They
are negotiating for the formation of a White Army in Germany to be
pitted against Russia. We are fully aware of this danger, and say
quite plainly that we have not worked a year for nothing; we have
laid the foundations, we are coming up to decisive battles,
battles which will indeed be decisive. But we are not alone: the
proletariat of Western Europe has gone into action and has not
left anything standing in Austria-Hungary. The government of the
country is just about as helpless, as wildly confused, has lost
its head as completely as Nicholas Romanov’s government at
the end of February 1917. Our slogan must be: Put every effort
into the fight once more, and remember that we are coming up to
the last, decisive fight, not for the Russian revolution alone,
but for the world socialist revolution.

We know that the imperialist vultures are still stronger than
us. They can still inflict wholesale damage, brutalities and
atrocities upon our country. But they cannot defeat the world
revolution. They are full of savage hatred, so we tell ourselves
that come what may, every Russian worker and peasant will do his
duty and will face death if the interests of defence of the
revolution demand it. No matter what miseries the imperialists may
still inflict upon us, it will not save them. Imperialism will
perish and the world socialist revolution will triumph in face of
all odds! (Stormy applause passing into prolonged
ovation.)
Newspaper reports published November 9, 1918 in Pravda
No. 242 and Izvestia No. 244
First published in full in 1919 in the book Extraordinary
Sixth All-Russia Congress of Soviets. Verbatim Report,
Moscow
Published according to the book checked with the verbatim report
and the Pravda text.

2

Speech On The International Situation

November 8

(Prolonged applause.) Comrades, from the very beginning
of the October Revolution, foreign policy and international
relations have been the main questions facing us. Not merely
because from now on all the states in the world are being firmly
linked by imperialism into a single system, or rather, into one
dirty, bloody mass, but because the complete victory of the
socialist revolution in one country alone is inconceivable and
demands the most active co-operation of at least several
advanced countries, which do not include Russia. Hence one of
the main problems of the revolution is now the extent to which
we succeed in broadening the revolution in other countries too,
and the extent to which we succeed meanwhile in warding off
imperialism.

I should like to remind you briefly of the main stages of our
international policy over the past year. As I have already had
occasion to point out in my speech on the anniversary of the
revolution, the main feature characterising our position a year
ago was that we were on our own. No matter how sound our
conviction that a revolutionary force was being and had been
created throughout Europe and that the war would not end without
revolution, there were no signs at the time that a revolution had
begun or was beginning. In these circumstances we could do nothing
but direct our foreign policy efforts to enlightening the working
people of Western Europe. This was not because we claimed to be
more enlightened than they, but because so long as the bourgeoisie
of a country have not been overthrown, military censorship and
that fantastically bloodthirsty atmosphere which accompanies every
war, particularly a reactionary one, predominate in that
country. You well appreciate that in the most democratic,
republican countries, war means military censorship and
unprecedented methods employed by the bourgeoisie and the
bourgeois military staffs to deceive the people. We set out to
share our achievements in this respect with other nations. We did
everything possible for this when we annulled and published the
disgraceful secret treaties which the ex-tsar had concluded with
the British and French capitalists to the benefit of the Russian
capitalists. You know that these were downright predatory
treaties. You know that the government of Kerensky and the
Mensheviks kept these treaties secret and upheld them. By way of
exception, we come across statements in that section of the
British and French press which is to any degree honest that,
thanks only to the Russian revolution, the French and the British
learned much that was material to them as regards their diplomatic
history.

We have certainly done very little from the point of view of
the social revolution as a whole, but what we have done has been
one of the greatest steps in its preparation.

If we now make a general survey of the results gained by the
exposure of German imperialism, we shall see that it is now
obvious to the working people of all countries that they were made
to wage a bloody and predatory war. And at the end of this year of
war the behaviour of Britain and America is beginning to be
exposed in the same way, since the people are opening their eyes
and begin to see through the evil designs. That is all we have
done, but we have done our bit. The exposure of these treaties was
a blow to imperialism. The terms of the peace treaty which we were
compelled to conclude proved to be a powerful weapon of propaganda
and agitation; we did more with them than any other government or
nation has done. But while it is true that the attempt we made to
awaken the people did not produce immediate results, we never even
assumed that the revolution would begin immediately, or that all
would be lost. During the past fifteen years we have brought about
two revolutions, and we have clearly seen how much time must
elapse before they grip the people. Recent events in Austria and
Germany confirm this. We said that we had no intention of allying
ourselves with robbers and becoming robbers ourselves; no, we
expected to arouse the proletariat of the enemy countries. We were
jeered at and told we were preparing to arouse the German
proletariat which would strangle us while we were preparing to
launch a propaganda attack. But facts have shown we were right to
assume that the working people in all countries are equally
hostile to imperialism. They only need to be given a certain
period for preparation; the Russian people, too, despite memories
of the 1905 Revolution, took some time before they again came up
for revolution.

Before the Brest-Litovsk Peace we did everything in our power
to hit at imperialism. If the history of the growth of the
proletarian revolution did not completely wipe this out, and if
the Brest-Litovsk Peace forced us to retreat before imperialism,
this was because we were insufficiently prepared in January
1918. Fate condemned us to isolation, and we went through an
agonising period after the Brest-Litovsk Peace.

Comrades, the four years which we spent in world war ended in
peace, but on onerous terms. In the final analysis, however, even
these onerous peace terms proved that we were right and that our
hopes were not built on sand. With every passing month we grew
strong while West-European imperialism grew weak. Now, as a
result, we see that Germany, who six months ago completely ignored
our Embassy and thought there could be no Red institution there,
recently, at any rate, has been weakening. The latest telegram
informs us of the German imperialists’ appeal to the people
to keep calm, saying that peace is near at hand. We know what is
meant when monarchs appeal for calm and promise to do the
impossible in the near future. If Germany gets peace soon, it will
be a Brest-Litovsk Peace, which instead of peace will bring the
working people more misery than ever.

The results of our international policy shaped in such a way
that six months after the Brest-Litovsk Peace we were a devastated
country to the bourgeoisie, but, to the proletariat, we were
rapidly developing and now head the proletarian army which has
begun to shake Austria and Germany. This success vindicated and
fully justified all our sacrifices in any worker’s eyes. If
we were to be suddenly wiped out, if our activities were to be cut
short—this is impossible since miracles do not
happen—yet if this were to happen we would be justified in
saying, without concealing our mistakes, that we had made full use
of the period, offered us by fate, for the world socialist
revolution! We have done everything possible for the working
people of Russia, and we have done more than anyone else for the
world proletarian revolution. (Applause.)

In recent months, and in-recent weeks, the international
situation has begun to change sharply; now German imperialism is
almost completely defeatEditor All designs on the Ukraine which
the German imperialists fostered among their working people proved
to be empty promises. It turned out that American imperialism was
ready, and a blow was struck at Germany. A totally different
situation has arisen. We have been under no illusions. After the
October Revolution we were considerably weaker than imperialism
and even now we are weaker than international imperialism. We must
repeat this now so as not to deceive ourselves: following the
October Revolution we were weaker and could not fight. Now we are
weaker too and must do everything we can to avoid a clash with
imperialism.

That we were able to survive a year after the October
Revolution was due to the split of international imperialism into
two predatory groups: Anglo-French-American on the one hand, and
German on the other, which were locked in mortal combat, and which
had no time for us. Neither group could muster large forces
against us, which they would have done had they been in a position
to do so. They were blinded by the bloodthirsty atmosphere of
war. The material sacrifices required to carry on the war demanded
the utmost concentration of their efforts. They had no time for
us, not because by some miracle we were stronger than the
imperialists—no, that would be nonsense—but only
because international imperialism had split into two predatory
groups which were at each other’s throats. Only thanks to
this the Soviet Republic was able to openly declare war on the
imperialists of all countries, depriving them of their capital in
the shape of foreign loans, slapping them in the face and openly
emptying their plunder-laden pockets.

An end has come to the period of declarations which we then
made over the correspondence started by the German imperialists,
even though world imperialism could not tear into us as it should
have done in line with its hostility and thirst for capitalist
profits, which had been fantastically expanded by the war. Until
the moment of the Anglo-American imperialists’ victory over
the other group they were fully occupied fighting among
themselves, and so had no chance to launch a decisive campaign
against the Soviet Republic. There is no longer a second
group. Only one group of victors remains. This has completely
altered our international position, and we must take this change
into account. The facts show how this change bears on the
development of the international situation. The workers’
revolution is now winning in the defeated countries; everyone can
clearly see what tremendous advances it has made. When we took
power in October we were nothing more in Europe than a single
spark. True, the sparks began to fly, and they flew from us. This
is our greatest achievement, but even so, these were isolated
sparks. Now most countries within the sphere of German-Austrian
imperialism are aflame (Bulgaria, Austria and Hungary). We know
that from Bulgaria the revolution has spread to Serbia. We know
how these worker-peasant revolutions passed through Austria and
reached Germany. Several countries are enveloped in the flames of
workers’ revolution. In this respect our efforts and
sacrifices have been justifiEditor They were not reckless
adventures, as our enemies slanderously claimed, but an essential
step towards world revolution, which had to be taken by the
country that had been placed in the lead, despite its
underdevelopment and backwardness.

This is one result, and the most important from the point of
view of the final outcome of the imperialist war. The other result
is the one to which I referred earlier, that Anglo-American
imperialism is now exposing itself in the same way as
Austro-German did in its time. We can see that if, at the time of
the Brest-Litovsk negotiations, Germany had been somewhat
level-headed, able to keep herself in check and to refrain from
making gambles, she would have been able to maintain her
domination and undoubtedly could have secured an advantageous
position in the West. She did not do this because when a machine
like a war involving millions and tens of millions, a war which
inflamed chauvinist passions to the utmost, a war bound up with
capitalist interests totalling hundreds of billions of
rubles—when such a machine has gathered full speed there are
no brakes that can stop it. This machine went farther than the
German imperialists themselves desired, and they were crushed by
it. They were stuck; they ended up like a man who had gorged
himself to death. And now, before our very eyes, British and
American imperialism is in this extremely ugly, but, from the
viewpoint of the revolutionary proletariat, extremely useful
position. You might have thought they would have had much greater
political experience than Germany. Here are people used to
democratic rule, not to the rule of some Junker or other, people
who went through the hardest period of their history hundreds of
years ago. You might have thought these people would-have retained
their presence of mind. If we were to speak as individuals, from
the point of view of democracy in general, as bourgeois
philistines, professors, who have understood nothing from the
struggle between imperialism and the working class, whether or not
they were capable of level-headedness, if we reasoned from the
point of view of democracy in general, then we would have to say
that Britain and America are countries with a centuries-old
tradition of democracy, that the bourgeoisie there would be able
to hold their ground. If by some means they were to succeed now in
holding on, this would at any rate be for a fairly long
period. But it seems that the same thing is happening to them as
happened to the militarist-despotic Germany. In this imperialist
war there is a tremendous difference between Russia and the
republican countries. The imperialist war is so steeped in blood,
so predatory and bestial, that it has effaced even these important
differences, and in this respect it has brought the freest
democracy of America to the level of semi-militarist, despotic
Germany.

We see that Britain and America, countries which had greater
opportunities than others for remaining democratic republics, have
overdone things as savagely and insanely as Germany did in her
time, and so they are heading, just as quickly, and perhaps even
faster, towards the end so successfully arrived at by German
imperialism. It swelled out fantastically over three-quarters of
Europe, became distended and then burst, leaving behind it an
awful stench. Now British and American imperialism is racing to
the same end. You only have to take a cursory glance at the
armistice and peace terms which the British and Americans, the
“liberators” of the people from German imperialism,
are presenting to the defeated nations. Take Bulgaria. You would
have thought that a country like Bulgaria could hold no terror for
the Anglo-American imperialist colossus. Nevertheless, the
revolution in this small, weak, absolutely helpless country caused
the Anglo-Americans to lose their heads and present armistice
terms that are tantamount to occupation. In this country where a
peasants’ republic has been proclaimed, in Sofia, an
important railway junction, the whole railway is now in the hands
of Anglo-American troops. They are forced to fight this little
peasants’ republic. From the military point of view this is
a walkover. People who take the view of the bourgeoisie, of the
old ruling class, of old military relations, merely smile
contemptuously. What does this pigmy Bulgaria signify in
comparison with the Anglo-American forces? Nothing from the
military standpoint, but a great deal from the revolutionary
standpoint. This is not a colony where they are used to
exterminating the defeated people in their millions. The British
and Americans consider this is only establishing law and order,
bringing civilisation and Christianity to African savages. But
this is not Central Africa. Here the soldiers, no matter how
strong their army, become demoralised when they come up against a
revolution. Germany is proof enough of this. In Germany, at any
rate as regards discipline, the soldiers were model army men. Yet
when the Germans marched into the Ukraine, factors other than
discipline came into play. The starving German soldier marched for
bread, and it would have been unrealistic to demand that he should
not steal too much bread. Moreover, we know that in this country
he was most of all infected by the spirit of the Russian
revolution. The German bourgeoisie were well aware of this and it
caused Wilhelm to panic. The Hohenzollerns are mistaken if they
imagine that Germany will shed a single drop of blood for
them. This is the result of the policy of bellicose German
imperialism. The same thing is repeating itself in regard to
Britain. The Anglo-American army is already becoming demoralised;
this began as soon as it launched the ferocious campaign against
Bulgaria. And this is only the beginning. Austria followed
Bulgaria. Permit me to read you some of the clauses of the terms
dictated by the Anglo-American imperialist victors. These are the
people who most of all shouted to the working people that they
were conducting a war of liberation, that their chief aim was to
crush Prussian militarism which threatened to spread the despotic
regime over all countries. They shouted loudest that they were
conducting a war of liberation. This was a deception. You know
that bourgeois lawyers, these parliamentarians who have spent
their whole lives learning the art of deception without blushing,
find it easy to deceive each other—but they don’t get
away with it when they have to deceive the workers in the same
way. British and American politicians and parliamentarians are
past masters at this art. But they will not get away with
deception. The working people, whom they incited in the name of
freedom, will come to their senses straight away, and even more so
when, on a mass scale, not from proclamations (which help, but do
not really move the revolution), but from their own experience,
they see they are being deceived, when they become aware of the
peace terms with Austria.

These are peace terms now being forced on a comparatively weak,
disintegrating state by people who shouted that the Bolsheviks
were traitors because they signed the Brest-Litovsk Peace
Treaty. When the Germans wanted to send their soldiers to Moscow,
we said we would rather all die in battle than agree to
this. (Applause.) We told ourselves great sacrifices
would have to be made in the occupied areas, but everybody knows
how Soviet Russia helped and kept them supplied with
necessities. Now the democratic troops of Britain and France will
have to serve to “maintain law and order”, and this
when there are Soviets of Workers’ Deputies in Bulgaria and
Serbia, when there are Soviets of Workers’ Deputies in
Vienna and Budapest. We know what kind of order this means. It
means that the Anglo-American troops are to be the throttlers and
executioners of the world revolution.

Comrades, when the Russian serf troops were sent to suppress
the Hungarian Revolution in 1848,[4] they were able to get
away with it because they were serfs; they were able to get away
with it in relation to Poland.[5] But people who have
known freedom for a century and who were incited to hate German
imperialism because it was a beast which had to be destroyed, must
understand that Anglo-American imperialism is the same sort of
beast whom it would be only right to destroy as well!

And now history, with its usual malicious irony, has arrived at
the point where, after the exposure of German imperialism, it is
the turn of Anglo-French imperialism to utterly expose itself. We
declare to the Russian, German and Austrian working people that
these are not the Russian serf troops of 1848! They will not get
away with it! They are out to stop people getting from capitalism
to freedom and to suppress the revolution. We are absolutely
convinced that this bloated monster will fall into the same abyss
as did the German imperialist monster.

I now turn to matters which affect us most of all. I shall
begin with the peace terms which Germany will have to agree
to. The comrades from the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs told me
that The Times, the chief mouthpiece of the fabulously
rich British bourgeoisie who actually shape the entire policy, has
already published the terms to be imposed on Germany. She is
expected to hand over Heligoland and the Wilhelmshaven Canal,
Essen, where practically all military equipment is manufactured,
disband her merchant fleet, immediately hand over Alsace-Lorraine
and pay indemnities totalling 60 thousand-million, a great part of
which must be paid in kind because money has depreciated
everywhere and British merchants too have begun to calculate in
another currency. We can see that the peace terms they are
preparing for Germany will be completely devastating, far harsher
than the Brest-Litovsk terms. They are strong enough materially
and physically to do so if it were not for the existence of that
awful Bolshevism. By imposing these peace terms they are preparing
their own doom. For this is happening in civilised countries in
the twentieth century, not in Central Africa. The once disciplined
German soldier who put down the illiterate Ukrainian people has
now buried his discipline. So it is all the more certain that the
British and American imperialists will bury themselves when they
make the gamble, which will bring about their political downfall,
of making their troops throttlers and gendarmes of all
Europe. They have been trying to destroy Russia for some time, and
have been thinking of attacking her for some time. You only have
to recall the Murmansk occupation, the millions they squandered on
the Czechs, the treaty they concluded with Japan. And now Britain
has a treaty with the Turks which gives her Baku so that she may
strangle us by depriving us of raw materials.

British troops are ready to attack Russia from the South,
through the Dardanelles or through Bulgaria and Rumania. They are
closing in around the Soviet Republic, they are trying to cut off
our economic contacts with the whole world. For this reason they
compelled Holland to break off diplomatic relations with us.[6] When Germany expelled our Ambassador
she acted, if not in direct agreement with Anglo-French policy,
then hoping to do them a service so that they should be
magnanimous to her. The implication was that we are also
fulfilling the duties of executioner against the Bolsheviks, your
enemies.

The main point about the international situation is (as I
mentioned the other day) that we have never been so near to world
proletarian revolution as we are now. We have proved we were not
mistaken in banking on world proletarian revolution. Our great
national and economic sacrifices were not made in vain. We
achieved successes. Yet if we have never previously been so close
to world revolution, then it is also true to say that we have
never been in such a dangerous situation as we are now. The
imperialists were busy among themselves, but now one group has
been wiped out by the Anglo-French-American group, which considers
its main task to be the extermination of world Bolshevism and the
strangulation of its main centre, the Russian Soviet Republic. To
do this, they intend to surround themselves with a Great Wall of
China so as to keep out the plague, the plague of
Bolshevism. These people are trying to rid themselves of
Bolshevism by going into quarantine, but this cannot be done. Even
if these Anglo-French imperialist gentlemen, who possess the best
techniques in the world, succeed in building this Great Wall
around the Republic, the germ of Bolshevism will still penetrate
the wall and infect the workers of the world. (Applause.)

The West-European press, the press of Anglo-French imperialism,
tries its hardest to keep silent about the state of
imperialism. No lie or slander is vile enough to use against the
Soviet government. It is true to say now that all the Anglo-French
and American papers, with financial backing running into billions,
are in capitalist hands and that they act in one syndicate to
suppress the truth about Soviet Russia, to spread lies and slander
about us. Yet despite the fact that for years there has been a
military censor ship which has prevented a word of truth about the
Soviet Republic from appearing in the newspapers of the democratic
countries, not a single large workers’ meeting held anywhere
goes by without the workers siding with the Bolsheviks, because it
is impossible to hide the truth. The enemy accuses us of
implementing the dictatorship of the proletariat. They are right
and we do not hide it. The fact that the Soviet Government is not
afraid and openly admits this attracts more millions of workers to
its side, because the dictatorship is directed against the
exploiters, and the working people see and are convinced that the
struggle we are waging against the exploiters is a serious one and
will be brought to a serious conclusion. Although the European
papers surround us with a conspiracy of silence, they have so far
announced that they regard it their duty to attack Russia because
Russia surrendered to Germany, because Russia is in fact a German
agent, because government leaders in Russia, they claim, are
German agents. New forged documents, for which a good price is
paid, appear every month proving that Lenin and Trotsky are
downright traitors and German agents. Despite all this they cannot
hide the truth, and from time to time there are open signs that
the imperialist gentlemen feel uneasy. L’Echo de Paris
[7] admits: “We are going into
Russia to break the power of the Bolsheviks.” Their official
line is that they are only fighting German domination, not
conducting a war with Russia and not interfering in military
matters. Our French internationalists who publish the III-me
Internationale [8] in Moscow cited this quotation, and
although we have been cut off from Paris and France by an
extremely elaborate Great Wall of China, we tell the French
imperialist gentlemen that they cannot defend themselves from
their own bourgeoisie. Indeed, hundreds of thousands of French
workers know this small quotation, and others too, and see that
all the declarations of their rulers, of their bourgeoisie, are
nothing but lies. Their own bourgeoisie let the cat out of the
bag; they acknowledge that they want to break the power of the
Bolsheviks. After four years of bloody war they have to tell their
people: go and fight again against Russia to break the power of
the Bolsheviks whom we hate because they owe us 17 thousand
million and won’t pay up,[9] because they are rude
to capitalists, landowners and tsars. Civilised nations who come
down to admitting such things, patently betray the failure of
their policy. No matter how strong they may be militarily we
calmly review their strength and say: but you have in your rear an
even more terrible enemy—the common people, whom you have
deceived up to now; so much so that your tongue has dried up from
the lies and slander you have spread about Soviet Russia. Similar
information may be gleaned from The Manchester Guardian
[10] of October 23. This British bourgeois
newspaper writes: “If the Allied armies still remain in
Russia and still operate in Russia, their purpose can only be to
effect a revolution in . . . Russia. The Allied governments must,
therefore, either . . . put an end to their operations in Russia
or announce that they are at war with Bolshevism.”

I repeat that the significance of this small quotation, which
sounds to us like a revolutionary call, like a powerful
revolutionary appeal, is that it is written by a bourgeois
newspaper, which is itself an enemy of the socialists, but feels
that the truth can no longer be hidden. If bourgeois papers write
in this vein you can imagine what the British workers must be
thinking and saying. You know the sort of language used by the
liberals in tsarist times, prior to the 1905 and 1917
revolutions. You know this language heralded an impending
explosion amidst the revolutionary proletariat. From the language
of these British bourgeois liberals, therefore, you can draw
conclusions about what is going on in the moods, minds and hearts
of the British, French and American workers. We must, therefore,
face the bitter truth about our international position. The world
revolution is not far off, but it cannot develop according to a
special time-table. Having survived two revolutions we well
appreciate this. We know, however, that although the imperialists
cannot contain the world revolution, certain countries are likely
to be defeated, and even heavier losses are possible. They know
that Russia is in the birth-pangs of a proletarian revolution, but
they are mistaken if they think that by crushing one centre of the
revolution they will crush the revolution in other countries.

We, for our part, must admit that the situation is more
dangerous than ever before, that once again we shall have to
summon up every effort. Over the past year we have laid a firm
foundation, created a socialist Red Army with a new discipline,
and we are absolutely certain that we can and must continue the
work we are doing. At all meetings, in every Soviet institution,
at trade union meetings and at meetings of Poor Peasants’
Committees we must say: Comrades, we have survived a year and have
achieved some success, but all this is still insufficient when we
consider the powerful enemy bearing down on us. This enemy,
Anglo-French imperialism, is world-wide, powerful and has defeated
the whole world. We are going to fight it not because we think
ourselves economically and technically on a par with the advanced
countries of Europe. No, but we do know this enemy is going to
topple into the abyss into which Austro-German imperialism once
toppled; we know that the enemy, which has now ensnared Turkey,
seized Bulgaria and is bent on occupying the whole of
Austria-Hungary with the object of establishing a tsarist,
gendarme regime, is heading for its doom. We know this as a
historical fact, and that is why, while in no way attempting the
impossible, we say we can beat off Anglo-French imperialism!

Every step in strengthening our Red Army will be echoed by a
dozen steps in the disintegration of and revolutions in this
apparently all-powerful enemy. There is therefore no cause
whatsoever for despair or pessimism. We know the danger is
great. It may be that fate has even heavier sacrifices in store
for us. Even if they can crush one country, they can never crush
the world proletarian revolution, they will only add more fuel to
the flames that will consume them all. (Prolonged applause
passing into ovation.)

Endnotes

[1]
The Congress was held at the Bolshoi Threatre between November 6
and 9, 1918. Its opening coincided with the celebrations of the
anniversary of the October Revolution. There were 1,296 delegates
(963 with voting rights and 333 with voice but no vote), of whom
1,260 were Communists. The agenda included the following items:
anniversary of the October Revolution, the international
situation, military situation building of Soviet power at the
centre, Poor Peasants’ Committees and local Soviets. Lenin
was elected honorary chairman of the Congress. After hearing
Lenin’s report on the anniversary of the October Revolution
at the first sitting on November 6, the delegates sent greetings
to workers, peasants and soldiers of all countries and their
leaders who were fighting for peace and socialism, and to the Red
Army. On Sverdlov’s proposal the Congress adopted an appeal
to the governments at war with Soviet Russia to start peace
negotiations. In view of the strengthening of Soviet power and the
victories of the Red Army the Congress adopted a decision on
amnesty.

At the second session of the Congress on
November 8 Lenin made a report on the international situation. The
Congress unanimously endorsed a resolution that had been drawn up
by Lenin and adopted at the joint session of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee, the
Moscow Soviet, factory committees and trade unions on October
22,1918. On the same day, after hearing the report of
People’s Commissar of Justice D. I. Kursky, the Congress
passed a resolution on revolutionary legality, drawn up on the
basis of Lenin’s theses. At its last session on November 9
the Congress discussed the military situation and Soviet
development, and adopted appropriate resolutions. The Congress
decided to merge the Poor Peasants Committees, which had already
fulfilled their functions with volost and village Soviets. The
delegates warmly welcomed the news of the revolution in Germany
and expressed their solidarity with the German workers, soldiers
and sailors.

A new All-Russia Central Executive Committee
was elected, consisting of 207 full members and 39 alternate
members. The Congress summed up the results achieved by Soviet
power in the first year of its existence and drew up a programme
of work for the Soviet Government in the near future.

[2]
This refers to the Congress of the Poor Peasants’
Committees of the Northern Region, which was held in Petrograd
between November 3 and 6, 1918. Over 15,000 representatives of
the Poor Peasants’ Committees in eight gubernias of the
Northern Region and other gubernias took part in Congress
work. Party and Soviet organisations of Petrograd and the
Northern Region had carried out extensive preparatory work for
the Congress under the guidance of the Organising Bureau headed
by S. P. Voskov, People’s Commissar for Food of the
Northern Region. The Congress discussed the current situation,
Poor Peasants’ Committees and local Soviets, supply and
distribution of products, the question of the Red Army, rural
education and posts and telegraphs. The Congress adopted a
decision to form model regiments from poor peasants, which was
later approved by the Sixth All-Russia Congress of Soviets on
the proposal of the Regional Congress. Its other resolutions
concerned the merger of Poor Peasants’ Committees with
local Soviets, the Soviet government’s food policy,
educational and other questions.

The Congress was of vast political importance,
as it strengthened the alliance of the working class and the
working peasants.

[3]
Reference is to the telegram sent “to all military
commissars, military instructors, army commanders and all
Soviets” on November 5, 1918, over the signatures of
Lenin, Sverdlov and People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs
Chicherin in connection with the rupture by Germany of
diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia. It was published in
Pravda and Izvestia on November 6.

[4]
In 1848-49 the Russian tsar Nicholas I sent troops to help the
Austrian emperor suppress the revolution in Hungary.

[6]
This refers to the sudden refusal of the Dutch Government to
permit the entry of a plenipotentiary envoy of the R.S.F.S.R., who
was already on his way to the country. Before his departure from
Russia the plenipotentiary had received from the Dutch Consul in
Moscow a visa notifying him of his recognition by the Dutch
Government as a plenipotentiary envoy of the R.S.F.S.R. at the
Hague.

[7]L’Echo de Paris—a reactionary bourgeois
paper published in Paris from 1884 to 1938.

[8]Ill-me Internationale—organ of the French
Communists in Soviet Russia, published in Moscow. Its first
issue appeared on October 20 1918. Among its contributors were
Jacques Sadoul, Inessa Armand (Y. Blonina) and
others. Publication was discontinued in March 1919.

[9]
The total sum of debts incurred by Russia through loans received
by the tsarist and Provisional governments (including foreign
investments in Russian industry) exceeded 16,000 million rubles
in gold. All foreign loans contracted by the tsarist government
and the Provisional Government were repudiated by the All-Russia
Central Executive Committee’s decree of January 21
(February 3), 1918.

[10]Manchester Guardian—a liberal newspaper, one of
the most popular and influential bourgeois newspapers. It was
founded in 1821 and appeared once a week (in 1857 it became a
daily). In the first years after the October Revolution it gave
a more or less objective coverage of events in Soviet
Russia.